| Description |
281,480 acres of fanning land located on Spanish Fork River, Corn Creek. Deep Creek, and Twelve Mile Creek.(19) Before the end of the grace period. Chief Arropine. the new Chief Yene-wood's father, died during the winter of 1864-1865, from smallpox. Jake Arropine refused to be soothed. He shouted "kill the Mormons and eat Mormon beef." John Lowry commanded him to be quiet. Someone cried out, "Lowry, he's going to shoot." Lowry jerked the young chief off his horse to the ground and beat him rather badly. Arropine fled to find Black Hawk. He was at the James Tooth home eating Sunday dinner. Black Hawk stalked to the stable, saddled his horse, and rode off. That day. April 9. 1865, he broke his ties with white man. War parties formed in -Sanpete and Sevier.(20) The aid of the federal government was sought. The Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the territory asked Colonel Conner at Camp Douglas to send soldiers. Conner refused.(21) Militia troops hastily mustered and Colonel Heber P. Kimball led a cavalry company to Manti. "This continued through the summer, while all the pan of the Territory for 300 miles was paralyzed..." So many men in the service in the area that little grain was raised. Mills and ranches were burned, herds of cattle were lost.(22) They organized many communities under martial law. Manti became a fortress. Every morning at six and again at six in the evening, the men were summoned by drum-beat to answer roll call. Drum-beats at any other hour were alarms. Pickets stood guard at four points day and night from early spring until snow fell, according to Peter Munk of Manti. One watcher was stationed in the guard house on Temple Hill to the east, one on the Red Point to the south, one on Fritches Knoll to the southwest, and one on the knoll northwest at the Sanpitch bridge. If a picket detected danger, he made a smoke fire to warn the guard in town. Then the drummer roused the town,(23) Their method of warfare was to drive off all the cattle they could. When they caught white men away from town, they shot them from ambush, mutilated their bodied and scalped them. They pounced on them unannounced, seldom meeting them in open combat. The participating natives were desperadoes, the lawless ones from many bands. During the first summer they drove off 2,000 head of cattle from Sanpete and Sevier counties, where the main depredations of the Black Hawk War were committed. These they took to the Grand River where they feasted through the winter. Early in the spring they were back, making their attacks and stealing again.(24) 128 |
